Playing Kurt Schwitters 

18th Century. The last of the cabinets of curiosities will be presented today. There is great  anticipation. A select group of people will witness the wonders of the plant, animal, and mineral  worlds: unicorns, fossils, and shells are among the rarities collected over years of travels around the  Earth—a slice of the macrocosm. 

Early 20th Century. A man steps out into the street and collects things he finds along his way:  crumpled newspapers, tickets to a play, a piece of shoe sole, a playing card. He puts them in his  pocket and takes them home, where, upon arrival, he notices, on the table, a letter that suddenly no  longer belongs to him. It joins the pile of things he just brought in from the street. Later, he will  think about what to do with them. Maybe an assemblage. Maybe an installation... tomorrow is  another day. 

21st Century. Another man walks alone. He meets someone who gifts him a bottle of perfume, a  box of colored pencils, and a little stool. He arrives at his studio, which is a home, a mini-museum.  He places the pencils in a box, alongside used tubes of paint. The perfume bottle, after being used,  will sit next to other empty bottles. He sits on the stool and waits. While waiting, he remembers that  peculiar man from the early decades of the last century. His name was Kurt Schwitters. The name of  this man today is Julio Cesar Lopes. Suddenly, he no longer feels alone. 

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Playing Kurt Schwitters is a multifaceted, polysemic installation. It is the index of both a personal  and a collective world. Walter Benjamin once wrote: "Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the  passion of the collector borders on the chaos of memory."